majority leader harry reid hates it. 13 majority leader harry reid hates it. they created it. imagine how the rest of us feel about it. somehow our leaders cannot seem to figure a way out of it. we all agree the country needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path. in my view, we need a balanced approach, as wes said, that includes both spending and revenues. cuts in spending should focus on programs a growing the most, not on discretionary spending, which is not growing, is not the problem, and yet has already borne the brunt of cuts. the discretionary spending is a part of the budget where america's future lies, including such investment as research and education. cutting invesart ent in our fute is not the way to solve this problem. yet that is exactly what the sequester will do. there is a better way. we have talked about the impact of the sequester on an economy that is still recovering. i want to focus on the longer term, the economy and the nation that we will leave to our children, our grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. the research being cut with the sequester af